


Take Two

by Esmethewitch



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Complicated Relationships, Family Feels, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Pryde & Hux are related, Pryde is an evil Mary Poppins, this will probably be wildly ooc once we meet this dude in canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-03-20 04:34:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18985381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Esmethewitch/pseuds/Esmethewitch
Summary: General Hux and the newly minted Allegiant General have a conversation.





	Take Two

General Armitage Hux of the First Order stood at attention as the _Finalizer’s_ newest officer strode down the shuttle ramp, and marched towards him, albeit with the aid of a cane. Allegiant General Pryde. A fossil dragged out of retirement, with a rank that Kylo Ren made up because he couldn’t stand to have Hux as his highest-ranked officer.

Did Ren even know who this man was? Surely he could sense Hux’s anger through the Force when he mentioned the man’s name. He could only hope that Kylo would refrain from digging through his memories. If the putative Supreme Leader understood what Pryde was to him, Hux was as good as dead, and the new Allegiant General shouldn’t procrastinate work on the final draft of his will.

“I want someone _loyal,_ ” Ren sneered months earlier, as Hux tried to explain that yes, Ren was Supreme Leader, but due to his position outside of the First Order chain of command, it wasn’t seemly for him just to make ranks up and irrevocably alter the structured hierarchy. He was force-choked and thrown against a wall for his pain.

“Allegiant General”, said Hux, and saluted.

“General”, said Pryde, and nodded. “If you would be so good as to show me to your office, we have many matters to discuss.”

“Yes, sir.” They walked down the hall, and Hux keyed in the door code. From the corner of his eye, he could see the edges of the old coot’s mouth twitching. Of course he was enjoying this. They went in. Pryde sat down first, wincing.

“Say what you will about the new hyperspeed shuttles, but I think they’re nothing to comm home about. They make my legs hurt.”

Hux sighed. “Sitting in one position for hours on end will give anyone cramps,” he said. He opened his datapad and pulled up the most salient documents and forms. “You don’t have to do this, Unc--Allegiant Gen-- sir.” Hux made a face. “The man-child can’t even make up a title that’s easy to say. Anyhow, sir, I’m grateful that you’ve come back to help guide the First Order into a new era, but I daresay we’ll get back on schedule quickly. We should probably discuss timelines...”

Pryde tsked. “Armie, I’m here as long as you need me. You know that. Besides, retirement was getting dull. This job sounds like a good challenge, and I get to boss my favorite nephew around.”

“I’m your only nephew,” Hux replied, rolling his eyes.

“It’s still a true statement. Don’t roll your eyes at me, young man!”

Hux resented being treated like a child. So, like a mature adult, he said: “I’m not a young man; I’m thirty-four. Everything is manageable here.” Hux felt his old mentor’s dark eyes bore into him, taking in Hux’s pallid skin colored only by the bags under his eyes, his thinness, and the twitching vein in his temple.

“Really. I’m impressed.” There was silence as the men stared at each other across the desk, measured by the ticking of the chronometer. And then Pryde said it. “Who’s looking after you?”

“I am looking after myself, thank you.”

“When’s the last time you slept? What was your last meal? Do you keep an exercise schedule?”

“None of this is relevant to the transition of authority here.”

Pryde coughed. “What was that, Ar--General?”

“None of this is relevant to the transition of authority here, _sir_ ”.

The Allegiant General smiled. “Much better. Yes, I outrank you. And now, I’m giving you a set of orders. You will leave your datapad in a safe, in my office, after your shift. The lock will operate on a timer, so you can access it in the morning. I know you’ll work through the night if I don’t confiscate it.”

“Sir, with all due respect…”

Pryde raised his cane. “Interrupt this tired old man again, and he might just thwack you on the head with this here stick. I’m nearly senile and I’m cranky. Understand?”

“Yessir, Uncle sir.” Hux was grinning despite himself. He knew that this was one of the rare occasions Pryde would not follow through with a threat.

“Alright. Where was I...Ah, yes. You will endeavour to get eight hours of sleep a night. You will eat balanced meals three times a day. I was under the impression that there was a cafeteria here, so that seems like a good place to get them. Finally, you will report to me, and only to me. Let me deal with the boy you call ‘Darth Tantrum’.”

Hux nodded. “Sir, when I had perhaps drank too much Corellian whiskey and commed you…”

Pryde laughed. “I knew that night that I had to see who could make Eloise and Brendol’s son turn to drink and cry like a baby. I didn’t think such things were possible.”

Armitage Hux flinched.

Pryde saw. He moved over to Hux and rested a hand on his shoulder. “You’re just like your mother,” he told him. “Brilliant, vicious, and awful at looking after yourself. Eloise worked herself to death, and then that sleemo Brendol Hux claimed her achievements as his and destroyed all her records. Said she was just a kitchen girl.”

“I know. I could have done with you waltzing in earlier. Twenty years earlier or so. That would have been nice.” He stared at a fixed point on the floor.

“I tried to intervene in the beginning. I was scared of making things worse, though. There was no way he’d consent to a DNA test, and as you know he’d destroyed all of your mother’s identifying information. As far as the top brass in the bureaucracy were concerned, we were unrelated and my sister never existed. Maybe it was for the best. I know I had no idea what to do with a child when I did get to see you.”

“You still did a better job than Brendol,” Hux muttered.

“A cleaning droid with clinical depression would have been a better father than Brendol Hux, but that’s neither here nor there. At least you got rid of him.”

 _Phasma technically got rid of Brendol, but Pryde will learn more about my failures soon enough,_ Hux thought. “Yes, I did.” he replied. Kylo Ren could kill him with a thought, but at least he’d never beaten Hux bloody and called him a disappointment. Pryde sighed and stood back, appraising him. Perhaps there was something in his eyes, in his slumped posture.

“Unbutton your collar,” he commanded. Hux hesitated. “That is an order.”

Glaring, Hux unbuttoned his collar, baring his bruised throat.

“Is that from today?”

“Yes.”

“Have you put bacta on it yet?”

“No. Didn’t have time.”

Pryde’s gloved hands balled into fists. Hux remembered the man who saw his wounds so long ago, gasped in quiet horror, and descended on him with gel and bandages.

“Make time. Things are different, now. Brendol only trusted me as far as he could throw me. The man who gave you those bruises would trust me with his life.”


End file.
